Background/Objective This study examined the role of different psychological coping mechanisms in mental and physical health during the initial phases of the COVID-19 crisis with an emphasis on meaning-centered coping. Method A total of 11,227 people from 30 countries across all continents participated in the study and completed measures of psychological distress (depression, stress, and anxiety), loneliness, well-being, and physical health, together with measures of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, and a measure called the Meaning-centered Coping Scale (MCCS) that was developed in the present study. Validation analyses of the MCCS were performed in all countries, and data were assessed by multilevel modeling (MLM). Results The MCCS showed a robust one-factor structure in 30 countries with good test-retest, concurrent and divergent validity results. MLM analyses showed mixed results regarding emotion and problem-focused coping strategies. However, the MCCS was the strongest positive predictor of physical and mental health among all coping strategies, independently of demographic characteristics and country-level variables. Conclusions The findings suggest that the MCCS is a valid measure to assess meaning-centered coping. The results also call for policies promoting effective coping to mitigate collective suffering during the pandemic.

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Most research on the pandemic today assumes that this situation is stressful and requires coping. The aim was to study subjective well-being in the situation of the pandemic and its relationship to coping and anxiety about coronavirus. 409 people filled Satisfaction With Life Scale, Scale of Positive And Negative Experiences, situational version of COPE, checklists assessing anxiety of infection and anxiety of the negative consequences of the pandemic. The comparison groups were three samples of 98, 66 and 293 people who filled Satisfaction With Life Scale and Scale of Positive And Negative Experiences in 2017 and 2019. There was a lower level of positive emotions among respondents in a situation of self-isolation, but the same level of satisfaction with life and negative emotions. Anxiety about the pandemic is related to higher negative emotions only. Emotionally oriented coping strategies and mental disengagement are associated with a higher level of pandemic anxiety. Problem-oriented and active coping strategies are weakly associated with lower anxiety that could be explained by the lack of ready effective methods of resolving this new and uncertain situation. Anxiety associated with current, acute and imminent risk (such as risk of infection), concentration on emotions and acceptance may not be dysfunctional strategies, as they are not associated with deterioration in overall well-being. On the contrary, attempts to cope with anxiety regarding negative consequences of a pandemic by mental disengagement, substance use and denial are associated with a lower level of satisfaction with life.

Pathways of Personality Development: Following Lev Vygotsky's Guidelines the other. Being very enthusiastic about Marxism, as the methodological foundation for the new post-crisis psychology, Vygotsky shared Marx's idea that the human essence lies in social relations, "brought inside and transformed into personality functions, representing the dynamic parts of its structure" [Vygotsky 1984a: 224]. The concept of higher psychological functions, introduced by Vygotsky, expressed this idea in the most articulate form. It was as

A person's worldview as a system of subjective generalizations about reality is an important though nearly neglected focus of study. The ultimate meanings technique (UMT) elaborated by the author during the last decade is presented as a research and clinical instrument that makes it possible to reconstruct the system of a person's beliefs about the goals and meanings of human life. Structural and content analytical indices applicable to UMT, along with qualitative phenomenological analysis, make it a helpful research instrument. The results of different age and clinical groups (normal, mentally deficient, alcoholic, and somatically troubled adults and normal and delinquent adolescents) are discussed.